Meet Angelika Drees

It takes many hands and minds to run RHIC and its four detectors. Each
person brings a unique combi-nation of skills and insight to advance the
RHIC program. Angelika Drees is one such person. More...

Spinning in Another Direction

In addition to investigating the primordial properties of the universe,
RHIC scientists are looking into another fundamental question of particle
physics: What is responsible for proton “spin”? More...

A "Perfect" Liquid at RHIC

Evidence to date suggests that gold-gold collisions at
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are creating a new state of
hot, dense, matter different and even more remarkable than had been
predicted.
-- by Karen McNulty Walsh

Since 2000, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC above) has
been performing beyond expectations. Built and operated with funding
from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, RHIC has
produced discoveries that have captured worldwide attention from both
scientists and the public.

BRAHMS

PHENIX

PHOBOS

STAR

In doing so, RHIC research has shone a spotlight on U.S. leadership
in science. And the exciting scientific output of RHIC has just begun.

Looking back

Like a giant “microscope” peering deep into the inner space of atomic
nuclei, RHIC also effectively serves as a “telescope,” looking back in
time to explore matter as it is thought to have existed fractions of a
second after the birth of the universe. Inside the
2.5-mile-circumference particle accelerator, two beams of gold ions
circulating at nearly the speed of light collide head on, developing
enormous energy density in a tiny volume.

Under these conditions, the quarks and gluons that make up protons
and neutrons in ordinary atomic nuclei are expected to be free for a
fleeting instant — just as scientists believe they were microseconds
after the Big Bang, before joining together to form protons, neutrons,
and eventually, atoms, stars, planets, and people. This is much farther
back in time than any telescope surveying the sky will ever be able to
reach. Using sophisticated detectors known as BRAHMS, PHENIX, PHOBOS,
and STAR, RHIC’s researchers take “snapshots” of this early universe
substance and study how it evolves.

Understanding matter at such a fundamental level will teach us about
the forces that hold the universe and everything in it together. Earlier
physics studies on the basic structure and properties of matter have
yielded countless, unforeseen advances and many technologies we now take
for granted — things like personal computers based on state-of-the-art
electronics, medical tools that help diagnose and treat disease without
surgery, and telecommunications devices that allow us to talk with
friends and colleagues around the world using a device smaller than a
human hand. Of course, no one can predict what, if any, practical
applications the knowledge gained from RHIC will yield, but we’ll never
know unless we delve deeper into the mysteries of matter.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily
funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),
Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical,
biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies
and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major
scientific facilities available to university, industry and government
researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science
by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by
Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities,
and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.